The Gilded Cage
by Merisida
Summary: "Up there, down here, it's all the same. It's just a gilded cage, one they've prettied up to keep us from noticing." - Elf Mage origin story with a few differences, prelude to Another Day at Vigil's Keep. Slight Suranna/Eadric
1. Chapter 1

**The Gilded Cage.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Age or any of the characters, I'm only borrowing. And I'm not making any profit from this at all :).

**A/N:** This is a prelude to my other Dragon Age story, Another Day at Vigil's Keep, although it can be read as a standalone fic. This is my version of the Elf Mage Origin story. Enjoy.

* * *

**1.**

Lyria awoke with a start, her heart jumping in her chest as her body flew upwards into a sitting position. She let her eyes adjust to the change in light, let her mind take in her familiar surroundings.

She was back in the tower, back in the apprentice dormitories, in her bed. The familiar sounds of tower life filled her ears. Quills scratching at parchment, the soft swish of fabric as mages walked the corridors, the creak of armour as the templars watched their every move.

"Lyria?"

She turned her head at the voice, staring over to her long-time friend Eadric. He was sitting in his own bed, just next to hers, looking over at her with concern on his young face.

"Eadric..."

"Are you all right? I hadn't even noticed that you'd gone until I woke up this morning. Why didn't you tell me you were going to be tested?"

She groaned as his voice instantly created a pounding headache to surface. "Does it matter? I passed the Harrowing, that's all I care about."

He nodded, "What was it like? What did you have to do?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you, right?" She replied, finally letting her legs stretch out beside her bed until she was sitting on the edge, directly opposite her friend. He merely raised a single eyebrow at her, until she chuckled.

"Hm you're right, I never did care about rules... Okay, I had to go into the fade and fight a demon."

His mouth opened slightly in an 'o' shape. "That's all?"

"Well yeah, but if you can't resist the demon then you fail and die... And those demons are pretty tricky." She said as she thought back to the stupid pride demon that had tried to fool her. It had come to her in the form of a helpless mage student, lost and alone, probably in the hopes that she would relate to that feeling.

Unfortunately the demon made one fatal mistake. He'd appeared as a human student, and Lyria had learned long ago not to trust humans, no matter who or what they were.

"I heard you broke some kind of record, the fastest Harrowing or something. It must have been easy." Eadric said, pride showing through in his voice.

"It was easy. You'd have to be a fool to trust a stranger in the fade."

"So now you'll go upstairs to the nice quarters and I'll be stuck down here..." Eadric said with a huff, obviously trying to make her feel better.

She only shrugged, "Up there, down here, it's all the same. It's just a gilded cage, one they've prettied up to keep us from noticing. This changes nothing."

Eadric nodded, his expression suddenly turning serious, his eyes narrowing. "I know... Don't worry, I've been making plans. It won't be long now before we'll be free of this prison. I'd just hoped to be done before the Harrowing..."

"What do you mean?" She asked, a puzzled frown on her face.

Someone walked past their beds and the pair froze, watching as the human girl stepped away, oblivious to the pair of elves.

"I'll tell you later. You know where." Eadric told her quietly, and then he stood. "Oh, Irving wanted to see you once you woke up. You should probably head over there now."

She groaned as she rose to her feet too, "Ugh, fine."

* * *

The familiar walk up to the First Enchanters office was in silence, with people purposefully moving out of her way as soon as they saw her coming. She wasn't particularly popular with the other mages, they were far too used to her hot-headed temperament. Most of the apprentices she had grown up around either feared her or mocked her, because instead of using her time to make friends and socialise, she had spent it training, learning and most importantly, planning.

Lyria hadn't wanted friends, just her freedom.

She paid no mind to the templar stationed outside the enchanters office. His helmet covered his face but she could still feel his eyes training on her like a hawk watching its prey.

She stepped inside the office, not caring that she was apparently interrupting a meeting of some sort.

The First Enchanter stood behind his desk, his hands clasped in front of him. Standing in front of the desk was the Knight Commander, the leader of the templars, and he didn't look too happy either.

And to his right stood an unfamiliar man, dressed in some kind of armour with a sword attached to his belt. Lyria smirked as she spotted the hilt of a dagger at the top of his boots and another at his hip. Whoever he was, he was very much armed and very much prepared.

As she entered all three men turned to face her. Irving seemed pleased by her arrival, Greagoir looked about as happy as she felt at being called there, but it was the third man who's expression caught her attention. He looked curious, staring at her as if she was a puzzle he had to figure out.

She resisted the urge to make any nasty comments, she was in the presence of the Knight Commander after all, and even she knew to play nice in front of that man.

"Ah, Lyria. Come on in." Irving was walking towards her, a bright smile on his face. She didn't know why. He knew exactly what she thought of him, so why was he suddenly acting as if she was his best friend?

The stranger turned to Irving in surprise, "This is..?"

Irving nodded, "Yes, this is she. This is Lyria, our newest member of the circle. She passed her Harrowing just last night."

The man smiled at her, but she didn't bother to return the gesture.

Greagoir left the room then, mumbling something about continuing their meeting later before he stalked away, glaring at Lyria as he passed.

She turned her gaze back to Irving while he continued on as if the Knight Commander had not spoken at all.

"Lyria, I'd like for you to meet Duncan of the Grey Wardens. He's here recruiting for the King's army."

Well that certainly explained the weapons he was carrying. Lyria had read a little about the order known as the Wardens, but she had found the tales of their battles to be boring. They'd been no help in getting her out of the tower so she had stopped reading them, there had been no point.

"Is that so? Please tell me you didn't drag me here just to introduce us?"

Irving smiled uncomfortably, sending Duncan a small apologetic look, but the warden looked amused rather than offended.

"No, that was not purely the reason." Irving finally replied. "Your Harrowing is behind you and you are now officially a mage of the circle of magi. Your phylactery has been taken to Denerim-"

"My leash, you mean." She interrupted with a huff.

She ignored Duncan as he asked about the phylacteries and what they were used for. Instead letting her eyes roam the office. Irving's desk was full with books, as if someone had taken an entire section from the library and dumped them there.

"...We have to prove that we can handle our power responsibly." Irving was saying to Duncan, who actually looked interested in the whole idea.

Lyria rolled her eyes as Irving's gaze drifted back to her. "You have proven this, Lyria. So I would like to present you with your robes, your staff and a ring bearing the circle's insignia."

Her mouth hung open slightly, "That's all I get? After all this time training and you're giving me some robes, a piece of wood and a useless ring?"

Irving sighed, moving to pick up a small bundle of bright yellow cloth and a wooden staff. The small golden ring was balanced on top of the cloth.

He held the items out for her, gently pushing them onto her when she refused to take them. With a sigh she grabbed them, screwing up her nose in disgust as she realised she would have to wear the horrible yellow robes from now on.

"If that's everything..?"

He nodded, "Yes, you are free to spend the rest of the day resting or catching up on your studies in the library. If you would, could you-"

"Great! Thanks, bye." She turned and left as quickly as she could, not wanting to stay and be badgered into doing something for the old man.

Irving sighed as she left, the door slamming closed behind her.

"She certainly is spirited." Duncan laughed.

"Yes, a bit too spirited if you ask me." Irving replied quietly.


	2. Chapter 2

**2.**

She easily found Eadric in the library, he was the only person there apart from Enchanter Sweeny after all. He was sitting alone at a table reading a book that looked to be almost as big as he was.

She quietly made her way over to him and stood beside the desk where he was reading.

"Move, please. You're in my light." He said harshly, not bothering to take his eyes from the words in front of him.

"_Your _light, huh?" She replied, giving him a smirk as he finally pulled back his head to notice that it was her.

"Oh, sorry. I thought you was that stupid shem girl who keeps bothering me."

"Amell? Maybe she likes you." Lyria laughed as she took a seat opposite her friend, laughing even harder at the look of disgust on his face.

"Please don't ever say that again."

She chuckled, her eyes roaming over the page that Eadric was so intent on reading. "What is this thing?"

When he failed to answer she snatched the tome away from him, placing one hand on the page so that she wouldn't loose it, and turned the book over until she could read the title. It was a book about the history of the circle.

Returning it to him on the right page she shrugged. "Why did you want to read that? I'll bet it's boring. Probably written by some templar who wanted nothing more than to lock up our kind and throw away the key."

He grinned back, "Something like that, yes. It is quite boring, I suppose, but it's useful."

At her disbelieving look his eyes gazed across the room. Enchanter Sweeny had fallen asleep at his desk, like normal, and they were all alone. Just the way they liked it.

"In here I found all the details I need to know for my plan." He told her with a grin. "It describes, in great detail I might add, the position of the repository in the basement as well as the devices used to lock and ward the place."

"The repository? Why would you go down there?" She asked in puzzlement.

"Phylacteries, Lyria. That's where they're all kept. At least the ones belonging to the apprentices."

"That's right, mine has been sent to Denerim..."

"Exactly, that's why I had hoped to do this before either of us took our Harrowing... But it doesn't matter. Once we get out of here we can always go after your phylactery too." He said, keeping his voice quiet even though there was no one around to hear them. You could never be too careful at the tower.

"You mean to destroy your phylactery then?" Lyria asked in surprise, "To go down into the basement and get rid of it?"

He nodded in reply, "Once it's destroyed the templars will have no way to track me down and we can escape. They will still be able to track you though, but I think once we are away from this place we will be able to take on any templars that come after us. And like I said, we can go to Denerim and find yours after."

"This makes sense. Why didn't we think of this earlier?" Lyria groaned.

"Don't get your hopes up just yet though, Lyri. There's still one problem. The door that leads into the section we need is blocked. It's a magical door, one that needs both the password and mana in order for it to open."

"So we need this password then? Who is likely to have it?"

"Irving and Greagoir, of course. Maybe one of the head templars. I suppose we could try and get it out of them but it will be hard." He replied sadly.

"I need time to think about this, to decide the best course of action." She said as she stood. "Keep reading, I need to go think."

He nodded as she left, quickly getting back to his book.

* * *

Lyria found herself frowning as she walked through the halls of the tower. She had a few options, but none were very appealing to her.

Then again, she needed that password if she wanted her freedom.

She could easily sneak into Gregoirs office and snoop around in the hopes that he had conveniently left the password on a piece of parchment for all to see. But she rather doubted even he would be that foolish. Plus there was the templars who stood guard outside the office, how would she get past them in the first place?

Option number two involved getting outside help. But who was really going to help her and Eadric escape? Perhaps Anders would give them some tips, but then again, she wasn't willing to put her trust in him again any time soon.

Her last option was perhaps the most dangerous, and one that she really did not want to think about. But if it came to it...

She could use blood magic to force the password from one of the templars mouths. It would probably take some time for her to get the spell right, since she had never practised blood magic before, and of course there was the added danger of demons that came with using it.

Shaking her head Lyria stumbled to a stop, realising that she had been so deep in thought that she had mistakenly walked into the chapel. Usually she avoided the place as much as she could, she didn't believe in the Maker and she certainly didn't want to spend her time hearing from people who did.

She was about to turn when soft a noise caught her attention. Her curiosity was instantly peaked, as the chapel was so often the quietest part of the tower.

She stepped around the trellis archway, peeking over to the corner of the room where two figures were standing. Interestingly only one of the pair was a mage.

She watched as the apprentice and the initiate cuddled together, completely oblivious to their silent watcher. And all the while Lyria's head was spinning with ideas.

Perhaps she would have some outside help after all.


End file.
